Jobs for the boys: A prosopographical study of chartered accountants who served with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) 1940–1946

This empirical historical study uses prosopography to identify the backgrounds of a group of 15 chartered accountants who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. Social capital ideas are used as the lens to explore these backgrounds. We discover that all 15 chartered accountants (CAs) were men, from middle-class professional families, who mostly attended public schools. They were chosen to join SOE because of their education, professional accounting training and relevant post-qualification experience. Most of the CAs served as accountants within SOE, where they facilitated SOE's clandestine financial warfare. Two of the CAs were SOE agents who saw action in Europe during 1944, with one being killed. The article demonstrates a prevalence of social capital, and old boys’ networks, but notes that this may have expedited the work of the SOE in challenging times.